Miscibility and DSC studies of some ferroelectric liquid crystals

Abstract

Chiral smectic C mesophases thermodynamically stable at room temperature are desirable for the development of high-speed electro-optic devices. The elastic unwinding by treated surfaces can be obliviated by use of untwisted chiral smectic C mixtures. In order to find convenient binary solutions the properties of some of the interesting Schiff base materials have been revisited : measurements of temperatures and molar enthalpy changes at the transitions, phase identifications and determination of twist sense have been performed A new example of thermodynamically perfect (ideal) liquid, smectic A and C, monotropic smectic I and solid solutions of enantiomers is given. Examples of untwisted chiral smectic C binary mixtures thermodynamically stable at low temperatures are presented